“We are delighted to share the story of this place and the experiences it provides. Fort Vancouver is also a gateway park to many other national parks in the West, and we feature it as a way to introduce our visitors to this part of the country and all that it offers,” Fortmann said.
Nationally, 293 million visitors spent $15.7 billion in “gateway” communities within 60 miles of about 400 national park sites, according to the annual analysis by economists from the National Park Service and U.S. Geological Survey.
Analysts developed generic spending profiles for different categories of visitors, starting with $40 per party for people making a day trip to a local park. Other categories range from $88 for out-of-towners on a day trip up to $402 for a party staying in a National Park Service lodge.
The analysis also considers secondary economic factors, including employment and ripple effects of spending. Those factors pushed the overall impact of national parks on the Washington economy in 2014 to about $616 million, according to the report.